Paolo Pandolfo, solo viola da gamba (bass viol).
His bowing technique is awe-inspiring, and at times so fast that the bow looks as though it is bending. He made the viol produce sounds I didn't know a viol could make: in a Tobias Hume piece called A Soldier's Resolution it started out as bagpipes and went through trumpets and drums.
Programme -
Five pieces by Tobias Hume (c. 1600)
Le Sieur de St Colombe: Prelude and Chaconne (late 1600s)
Marin Marais: Les Voix Humaines, Le Badinage (c. 1700). A reminder that Pandolfo played with Jordi Savall (of Tous Les Matins Du Monde fame).
Then two of Pandolfo's own compositions. Stunning and exciting. The improvisation became so intense that it seemed the viol would break under the strain, but just before it could shatter into shards to be flung out across the hall, the music relaxed, only to wind up again.
Finally, J.S. Bach: Sonata for 'cello, transcribed by Pandolfo, which he introduced with an explanation of why he felt it was appropriate to play the 'cello sonatas on bass viol.
More information -
http://www.paolopandolfo.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Pandolfo
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Loadsa Judith Weir
At various times this evening I heard some of the Beeb's celebration of Judith Weir's music (including her talking about her background). Never heard King Harald’s Saga before, and was most impressed with Elin Manahan Thomas who sang it. The Saga is described as an opera in 3 acts for solo soprano (and that's solo as in totally alone and unaccompanied), performing 11 parts. Good thing it's only 10 minutes long. Elin was fantastic, producing different tones for each character.
All the Ends of the Earth, a motet written in 1999, is influenced by the music of the 12th-century Notre Dame school. Lovely. It was written for the BBC Singers who performed it in this concert; I'd prefer some other group, because I never feel comfortable with the Singers' sound on early music or early-music-style. Of course, I'd like to sing it myself...
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=6296
All the Ends of the Earth, a motet written in 1999, is influenced by the music of the 12th-century Notre Dame school. Lovely. It was written for the BBC Singers who performed it in this concert; I'd prefer some other group, because I never feel comfortable with the Singers' sound on early music or early-music-style. Of course, I'd like to sing it myself...
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=6296
Monday, January 14, 2008
Earth Hour
Earth Hour - http://www.earthhour.org/ (switch off lights and tvs for an hour).
I'm in favour of micro-most-things[0]. The argument that doing/not doing something because it won't solve the whole problem at once, or because it will only ameliorate a problem, has always seemed an indicator of laziness, covert greed, or stupidity.
Even if it doesn't actually achieve a great reduction in immediate energy consumption, Earth Hour seems a way of making people think. Living with students who have recently left home and halls was rather a shock: so many seemed unable to connect energy consumption with cost, let alone more remote concepts. Of course turning off lights and appliances for one hour a year won't make a big difference to CO2; but anything which makes people think, provided it does no harm, deserves support.
However, there are people claiming that Earth Hour is a Bad Idea because it will break the national grid. So far, I haven't seen any detailed reason adduced, just that "surges" are bad and that the national grid is designed for continuous production and drain. Surely it has storage capacity? How else would it deal with the kettle-on syndrome? What happened to Sydney's grid last year (apparently there was a 10% reduction)?
[0] except micro-management
[EDIT] In the opinion of a friend who works in the industry, it is indeed Bad. "Almost instantaneous load changes to power generation and distribution services are not a good idea." I'm not convinced that this demonstration would be widespread enough to do any damage, but his arguments on the difficulty of planning for a sudden lessening in demand look sound. More important from the point of view of using this as a demonstration in support of the environment is his comment that "It is also costly from an environmental point of view where return to a peak demand would probably initiate quick-start gas-turbine generation".
From another source: BERR has information on national grid management. The background in this PDF of the government response to Clause 18 (proposal for Dynamic Demand technology) implies that if there is a good estimate of the numbers in advance the risk is low, but it could result in cascading power failures and hardware damage.
I'm in favour of micro-most-things[0]. The argument that doing/not doing something because it won't solve the whole problem at once, or because it will only ameliorate a problem, has always seemed an indicator of laziness, covert greed, or stupidity.
Even if it doesn't actually achieve a great reduction in immediate energy consumption, Earth Hour seems a way of making people think. Living with students who have recently left home and halls was rather a shock: so many seemed unable to connect energy consumption with cost, let alone more remote concepts. Of course turning off lights and appliances for one hour a year won't make a big difference to CO2; but anything which makes people think, provided it does no harm, deserves support.
However, there are people claiming that Earth Hour is a Bad Idea because it will break the national grid. So far, I haven't seen any detailed reason adduced, just that "surges" are bad and that the national grid is designed for continuous production and drain. Surely it has storage capacity? How else would it deal with the kettle-on syndrome? What happened to Sydney's grid last year (apparently there was a 10% reduction)?
[0] except micro-management
[EDIT] In the opinion of a friend who works in the industry, it is indeed Bad. "Almost instantaneous load changes to power generation and distribution services are not a good idea." I'm not convinced that this demonstration would be widespread enough to do any damage, but his arguments on the difficulty of planning for a sudden lessening in demand look sound. More important from the point of view of using this as a demonstration in support of the environment is his comment that "It is also costly from an environmental point of view where return to a peak demand would probably initiate quick-start gas-turbine generation".
From another source: BERR has information on national grid management. The background in this PDF of the government response to Clause 18 (proposal for Dynamic Demand technology) implies that if there is a good estimate of the numbers in advance the risk is low, but it could result in cascading power failures and hardware damage.
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